On September 15, 2025, the Ombudsman's Office hosted a roundtable discussion "Systemic Support for Civilians After Return from Russian Captivity: Problems and Solutions", organized under the chairmanship of the Representative of the Commissioner in the System of Security and Defense Sector Bodies, Head of the Working Group on Civilians at the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, Yuriy Kovbasa.
The event was attended by representatives of state bodies, international and national public organizations, including the NGO "Association of Relatives of Kremlin Political Prisoners".
Our organization presented the key areas of legal assistance to civilians returning from illegal imprisonment:
• Establishing the fact of deprivation of personal liberty (assistance in passing through the commission at the Ministry of Development);
• Searching for missing persons;
• Working with the International Register of Losses so that released civilians can receive compensation in the future;
• Support in interaction with state bodies on issues of reintegration and protection of rights.
Separately, we emphasized the importance of a systematic solution to the issue of providing temporary housing for released civilians. Today, this problem is actually not resolved, because the existing Cabinet of Ministers Resolution No. 495, which regulates the procedure for providing temporary housing, does not take into account the needs of persons returning from illegal imprisonment. That is why we called for amendments to this resolution to provide the released with basic conditions for restoring life after captivity.
During the discussion, the participants also emphasized other critically important aspects: medical and psychological care, document restoration, social and professional adaptation.
It is important that there are gaps in the current legislation, due to which some of the released civilians remain outside the state support mechanisms. This inequality must be eliminated by adopting separate regulatory legal acts.
We are grateful to the Ombudsman's Office for organizing such a dialogue and the opportunity to involve the public in developing systemic solutions. We are convinced that only in partnership between the state and civil society can an effective model of support for civilians returning from Russian captivity be created.
